Water remediation using advanced technology

Abstract

The presence of antibiotic traces in the aquatic system due to the inefficient treatment of the pharmaceutical wastewater represented threats, such as bioaccumulation and antibiotic-resistance, to the environment and human health. Accordingly, for the first time, the current work utilized photocatalytic oxidation technology with green, environment-friendly characteristics as a replacement of the traditional sewage treatment technology. The photocatalytic degradation of two commonly used antibiotics ceftriaxone and azithromycin was used using thin sheet-like structure graphene nitrite nanosheets (G-C3N4) either separately or in a combination with titanium oxide nanoparticles under visible light. Additionally, several parameters were investigated to evaluate the potential of the removal process, such as, the exposure time to visible radiation, the type and concentration of the nanoparticles (NPs). The most effective parameter for drugs removal was the NPs type. Furthermore, an RP-HPLC/UV method was developed and validated for measuring the percentage of removal for ceftriaxone and azithromycin drugs. The highest percentage removal for ceftriaxone was 99.67% and 94.74%, for azithromycin, which was achieved using G-C3N4and visible light exposure time 90 min. The established protocol can be designed and applied on different pharmaceutical wastewater samples.